Walker owes explanation on scandals

Shortly before he died, President Warren G. Harding complained about the scandals that surrounded his administration. “I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies in a fight. But my damn friends, they’re the ones who keep me walking the floor nights.”

On Tuesday, Darlene Wink pleaded guilty to political fundraising from her Milwaukee County office on county time. Wink worked on two fundraisers for then-County Executive Scott Walker. She denies Walker had any knowledge of her work on those fundraisers.

Given that Wink was doing that work for the Milwaukee County Republican Party and not as an operative of the Walker campaign, it’s understandable that Walker would not know about her work on those fundraisers. Like the earlier allegations against Walker aide and friend Tim Russell, the charges against Wink do not present a threat to Walker.

It’s the charges against the other Walker aide that present the bigger problem.

Kelly Rindfleisch is accused of fundraising from her Milwaukee County office for Brett Davis, a candidate for lieutenant governor. According to the criminal complaint against Rindfleisch, she was hired by Russell as a policy analyst for Walker.

In a text message exchange with another Walker confidant, Rindfleisch said that half her work was being done for the Walker campaign for governor.

During that time, Rindfleisch was hired by Cullen Werwie, the campaign manager for Davis, to do fundraising for the Davis campaign. Werwie is currently the governor’s spokesman, and Brett Davis is the state Medicaid director.

Rindfleisch had to know that doing fundraising work from her office on county time was against the law because she had already been granted immunity previously in the investigation of the caucus scandal in Madison, which was about the very same type of activity.

Both Davis and Werwie had to know, too, that fundraising from a government office on government time is a serious violation of the law, yet both contacted Rindfleisch about fundraising issues repeatedly during working hours.

The John Doe investigation also turned up an unofficial Internet link used by Rindfleisch and others to allegedly circumvent any open records requests that would have turned up illegal campaign activity.

It’s entirely possible that Walker didn’t know about the unofficial Internet network set up by Russell. The wireless router for my entire house is about as big as a laptop computer. However, we have no explanation from Walker’s administration for the existence of the network, nor do we know if Walker knew anything about it.

As part of the John Doe investigation, Werwie was granted immunity. That makes it very difficult for the Walker administration to answer any questions about the investigation. When the administration refers questions to Walker’s campaign, the campaign is also under investigation.

Walker will voluntarily meet with the district attorney investigating his administration as Milwaukee County executive. That means it is unlikely we can expect an explanation from Walker on what he knew of the possible illegal political campaign activities under him as Milwaukee County executive.

The longer this drags on, the more harm there is to Walker. It doesn’t help Walker that this investigation comes in the midst of a recall effort.

Keeping a spokesman like Werwie that was directly involved in the alleged illegal activities just makes it more difficult for Walker’s administration to defend itself. The Walker administration needs to be able to explain what Walker knew about the activities in the county executive’s offices while he was there. Unless the governor breaks his personal silence on the investigation, there is nobody else that can speak for him.

Then there’s the ethics question. Walker has the same information we all do about Rindfleisch’s fundraising activities on Davis’ behalf. What possible reason could Walker have for keeping Davis and Werwie?

In the recall campaign, so far the Democrats have failed to put up a real challenger to Walker. But as the John Doe investigation drags on, the real challenge to Walker may be his own friends.

Good points James. However, I’m not sure firing Werwie and Davis would help Walker’s narrative, which I suspect may be partly why they are still working there. It just looks bad to fire them. Another negative story. On the other hand it may be better to take as many lumps as he can now, well ahead of a Spring recall election. It looks it’s a matter of the least worst option.

Even Owen expends a total of four words agreeing with you, but one of the words was “Wigderson.”

Over at Prof. Shh ‘n Shh’s place, you’ll find him and O.G. Mitchell defending the notion that the public should finance any incumbent’s campaign, a legal position they found inter-textually by confusing the definitions of “politics” and “fund-raising”.

It’s sort of like the “Obama is a secret Muslim” stories. It might be obvious that you’re spending a lot of time in a Christian church, but secretly deep-down you’re promoting the Islamic agenda, and that’s the reason we can’t trust you. Maybe you’re working for the Fitzes who plan to take over when Walker’s regime topples. As long as we don’t play the queen of diamonds, you’ll be OK.

Saying things like “Walker will voluntarily meet” and “it’s entirely possible that Walker didn’t know” is still pretty deep in operative territory. Maybe they’ll go easy on you. Was there any doubt that Walker was invited and he and his attorney understood a subpoena would be the response if they said “no, thank you”?

To suggest that “Walker didn’t know” is pretty far-fetched. There’s such a long list of things he’d need to overlook. One, how work was getting done in his office. Two, how work was getting done on his campaign. Three, how work was getting done on Davis’s campaign.

As far as I can imagine, they would’ve needed an extended conspiracy that would’ve included blindfolds and earplugs for Walker whenever he walked into his own office area. It also means his chief of staff was willing to hide the details from Walker, or somehow everyone was able to hide the details from him, too. There would’ve been plenty of details for his own campaign staff to hide, and similarly, no one at Davis’s campaign ever accidentally mentioned to anyone not part of the conspiracy how something was getting done by someone within Walker’s office area.

As for router size, many mobile hotspots are thinner than cell phones and not much larger. I have no doubt they’d be easy to hide. A personal laptop? Less so, especially if I was typing furiously on it half the day. In the course of months, no one saw the laptop screen and wondered how she was getting Internet? Same goes for extended conversations on personal cell phones. No one ever overheard something non-kosher?

Well, nice to see what the latest conspiracy theory is about me. The problem, John, is that so much of your guess work is just that, guess work. I’m writing for a newspaper, not the typical leftwing blog engaging in conspiracy mongering. I have to stick with what I know and what I can reasonably infer. By the way, that’s what I do around here, too. Some of it will always be a victim of timing, inevitable when I write a column on Monday or Tuesday for an item that appears on Thursday.

As for what you guess what Walker should have known, you assume that office work of salaried employees in a political office is something like an assembly line on a factory floor. Someone bringing in their own equipment to do some personal business on personal time is not that unusual. (I do it myself sometimes.)

Where I disagree with Rick Esenberg (and I think one should be reluctant to do so) is that while “everyone does it” (call it the così fan tutte excuse) almost everyone understands “it” should never-ever include fundraising on government property. Or at least “everyone” did understand that at one time.

As for Walker knowing what was going on in Davis’ campaign, that’s just silly. Most candidates for public office have a hard time knowing what’s going on in their own campaigns. (Most campaign managers wish their candidates didn’t know anything about the campaign except who they’re calling for money, what doors are they knocking, and what ads are being placed.) Unless Walker is the most brilliant political strategist since Machiavelli himself (something leftwing blogs are certainly loath to say), worrying about what’s going on ineverybody else’s campaign would have been the furthest thing from his mind. Given that the Walker campaign didn’t even know when Sarah Palin was coming to town, I’d argue that campaign intelligence was actually a little lacking rather than omniscient.

Again, all of this leaves open that Walker certainly could have known about the activities of his subordinates, but it does not mean that he had to know. The Walker Administration needs to answer those questions fully, but they will certainly find it impossible to do so given that the administration’s chief spokesperson, Cullen Werwie, is the most implicated in the scandal, and the candidate for whom the work was done (and had to know of the Walker aide working on his behalf), Brett Davis, continues in his role in the administration.

[…] of embattled Governor Scott Walker (R-WI). But James is impatient with the Governor’s lack of a coherent explanation for corruption by his closest aides. On a personal note, I find this irritating because James Wigderson once more forces reexamination […]

Come now, you’re writing an opinion piece for a newspaper. It’s chock-full of supposition and imagination and drizzled with spin that’s been transmitted to you over the secret WisGOP radio network that’s not so secret any more. (What is the frequency, Kenneth?)

As for Davis, you infer that Walker didn’t prefer him over “Look at my me and my new red suit!” Barbie, and his campaign wasn’t coordinating with Davis?

Today in the MJS even Mike Nichols chimes in with his version of “Gee, any reasonable person can see that Nardelli and Walker should’ve known what was happening in their own office for months at a time.” My questions aren’t far from yours and they aren’t far from Nichols’.

I’ll infer that the WisGOP secret network must’ve sent a message to say it was OK to start talking about Walker’s imminent perp walk, because they’re building the foundation for the next prince in the succession.

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